What are IDNs generic Top-level domains?

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) are domain name extensions that use characters from non-Latin scripts. Traditionally, domain names were limited to ASCII characters (English alphabet, numbers, and hyphens). IDNs were introduced to make the internet more accessible to people around the world by allowing them to use domain names in their native languages and scripts, such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, etc.

Here's a breakdown:

• Internationalized Domain Name (IDN): This refers to any domain name that contains characters outside of the basic ASCII set. This can apply to the entire domain name, including the Top-Level Domain (TLD) and the second-level domain (the part before the TLD).
• Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD): These are TLDs that are not specific to any country. Examples of traditional gTLDs include .com, .org, .net, .info, etc.
• IDN gTLD: This is a gTLD that is itself composed of non-ASCII characters. For example, instead of a .com or .org, you might have a gTLD like:
  • .网络 (xn--vhquv), which means "network" in Chinese.
  • .公司 (xn--io0a7i), which means "company" in Chinese.
  • .москва (xn--80adxhks), meaning "Moscow" in Cyrillic.

How they work:

While IDNs are displayed in native scripts for users, the Domain Name System (DNS) still operates using ASCII characters. To bridge this gap, IDNs are converted into an ASCII-compatible encoding using a process called Punycode. This conversion prefixes the domain with "xn--" followed by the Punycode translation of the Unicode characters. For instance, a domain like उदाहरण.com would be converted to something like xn--p1b6g1a.com for DNS resolution.

Significance:

IDN gTLDs are crucial for promoting linguistic diversity online and making the internet more inclusive for non-English speaking populations. They enable businesses, organizations, and individuals to create a stronger local presence and reach broader audiences by allowing users to navigate the internet in their native language and script, which can improve user experience, memorability, and brand recognition.